Climate Change

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Hi friends today i am going to post questions on climate change. It is very important for GS-3 Mains. I hope you practice well this questions friends.

TOPIC: CLIMATE  CHANGEwww.google.com

Q. What is climate change?

A). Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns when that change lasts for an extended period of time. Climate change may refer to a change in average weather conditions, or in the time variation of weather within the context of longer-term average conditions. Climate change is caused by factors such as biotic processes, variations in solar radiation received by Earth, plate tectonics, and volcanic eruptions. Certain human activities have been identified as primary causes of ongoing climate change, often referred to as global warming. There is no general agreement in scientific, media or policy documents as to the precise term to be used to refer to anthropogenic forced change; either "global warming" or "climate change" may be used.

Scientists actively work to understand past and future climate by using observations and theoretical models. A climate record-extending deep into the Earth's past has been assembled, and continues to be built up, based on geological evidence from borehole temperature profiles, cores removed from deep accumulations of ice, floral and faunal records, glacial and per glacial processes, stable-isotope and other analyses of sediment layers, and records of past sea levels. More recent data are provided by the instrumental record. General circulation models, based on the physical sciences, are often used in theoretical approaches to match past climate data, make future projections, and link causes and effects in climate change.

Physical evidence to observe climate change includes a range of parameters. Global records of surface temperature are available beginning from the mid-late 19th century. For earlier periods, most of the evidence is indirect-climatic changes are inferred from changes in proxies, indicators that reflect climate, such as vegetation, ice cores, dendro-chronology, sea level change, and glacial geology. Other physical evidence includes arctic sea ice decline, cloud cover and precipitation, vegetation, animals and historical and archaeological evidence.

Factors that can shape climate are called climate forcings or "forcing mechanisms". These can be either "internal" or "external". Internal forcing mechanisms are natural processes within the climate system itself (e.g., the thermohaline circulation). External forcing mechanisms can be either anthropogenic - caused by humans - (e.g. increased emissions of greenhouse gases and dust) or natural (e.g., changes in solar output, the earth's orbit, volcano eruptions).

Q. What are the responsible steps taken by india?

A. Responsible steps taken by India:

 Prepared National Action Plan on Climate Change + State-wise Plan
 Energy efficiency + Sustaining Himalayan Ecosystem + Forests + Water & Air + Strategic Knowledge build-up for Climate change
 Target of generating 20,000 MW of solar power by 2020 out of which achieved almost about 1200 mw
 Voluntary commitment of reducing emission intensity of GDP by 20-25% by 2020
 Adaptive Mechanism: Agriculture (Organic Farming + Watershed management)
 BEE Ratings: For electrical appliances- To understand the increase in the bill and thus, buy less energy consuming appliances
 Bharat IV Emissions + Wind energy generation- Govt. offers concessions to companies who establish wind farms
 Set up of largest Solar pond- Bhuj, Rajasthan
 Experimental ‘Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion’ (OTEC) Plant- Kerela
 National Biofuel Policy- Biofuels will be grown on non-agricultural land using ‘Jatropha’
 National Clean Energy Fund (NCEF): India has taken a number of concrete steps to enable the transition towards a cleaner environment and NCEF is one of the major initiatives taken, to provide an impetus for the development of clean energy.

India and Climate Change

Extreme Heat: India is already experiencing a warming climate

·         Unusual and unprecedented spells of hot weather are expected to occur far more frequently and cover much larger areas.

·         Under 4°C warming, the west coast and southern India are projected to shift to new, high-temperature climatic regimes with significant impacts on agriculture.

Changing Rainfall Patterns

·       An abrupt change in the monsoon could precipitate a major crisis, triggering more frequent droughts as well as greater flooding in large parts of India.

·         Dry years are expected to be drier and wet years wetter.

Droughts

·       Droughts are expected to be more frequent in some areas, especially in north-western India, Jarkhand, Odisha and Chattisgarh.

·        Crop yields are expected to fall significantly because of extreme heat by the 2040s.

Groundwater: More than 60% of India’s agriculture is rain-fed, making the country highly dependent on groundwater. Even without climate change, 15% of India’s groundwater resources are over-exploited.

Sea level rise

·   Sea-level rise and storm surges would lead to saltwater intrusion in the coastal areas, impacting agriculture, degrading groundwater quality, contaminating drinking water, and possibly causing a rise in diarrhoea cases and cholera outbreaks, as the cholera bacterium survives longer in saline water.

·         Kolkata and Mumbai, both densely populated cities, are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of sea-level rise, tropical cyclones, and riverine flooding.

Agriculture and Food Security

·         Even without climate change, world food prices are expected to increase due to growing populations and rising incomes, as well as a greater demand for bio-fuels.

·         Seasonal water scarcity, rising temperatures, and intrusion of sea water would threaten crop yields, jeo-pardizing the country’s food security.

Energy Security

·         The increasing variability and long-term decreases in river flows can pose a major challenge to hydropower plants and increase the risk of physical damage from landslides, flash floods, glacial lake outbursts, and other climate-related natural disasters.

·         Decreases in the availability of water and increases in temperature will pose major risk factors to thermal power generation.

Water Security: An increase in variability of monsoon rainfall is expected to increase water shortages in some areas.

Migration and conflict

·         South Asia is a hotspot for the migration of people from disaster-affected or degraded areas to other national and international regions.

·         The Indus and the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna Basins are major trans boundary rivers, and increasing demand for water is already leading to tensions among countries over water sharing.

·         Climate change impacts on agriculture and livelihoods can increase the number of climate refugees.

The Way Forward:

·         Improvements in hydro-meteorological systems for weather forecasting and the installation of flood warning systems can help people move out of harm’s way before a weather-related disaster strikes.

·         Building codes will need to be enforced to ensure that homes and infrastructure are not at risk.

·         With built-up urban areas rapidly becoming “heat-islands”, urban planners will need to adopt measures to counteract this effect.

·         Investments in R&D for the development of drought-resistant crops can help reduce some of the negative impacts.

·         The efficient use of ground water resources will need to be incentivized.

·         Major investments in water storage capacity would be needed to benefit from increased river flows in spring and compensate for lower flows later on.

·         Building codes will need to be strictly enforced and urban planning will need to prepare for climate-related disasters.

·         Coastal embankments will need to be built where necessary and Coastal Regulation Zone codes enforced strictly.

·         Crop diversification, more efficient water use, and improved soil management practices, together with the development of drought-resistant crops can help reduce some of the negative impacts.

·         Improvements in irrigation systems, water harvesting techniques, and more-efficient agricultural water management can offset some of these risks.

Q. What is the Objective of climate change?

A. Objective: ‘Funding research and innovative projects in clean energy technologies’

 National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency (NMEEE)-The key focus for government action for energy efficiency and is divided into four components:

 Perform, Achieve and Trade (PAT): A scheme for trading in energy efficiency certificates; mandatory for all large industrial units and facilities in thermal power, aluminum, cement, fertilizers, chlor-alkali, steel, paper and pulp, and textiles.

 Energy Efficiency Financing Platform

 Market Transformation for Energy Efficiency

 Framework for Energy Efficient Economic Development.

Q. What strategies can India adopt to insulate lives and livelihoods from the adverse impact of unfavourable climate?

A. 1.Adaptation Strategies

 Our strategy should be to maximise the production benefits of good monsoons and minimize the adverse impact of climate change.

 The action plans for adaptation and mitigation have to be local.

 We will have to establish at the Panchayat level, Climate Risk Management Centres and train a cadre of Community Climate Risk Managers.

 Farming systems for adaptation to climate change will have to be designed by ICAR, Agricultural Universities and Krishi Vigyan Kendras and popularised through local men and women trained to become Climate Risk Managers.

 There will be a need for anticipatory research in several areas of farming which will

need change.

 Urgent action is needed in the conservation of Climate Smart Millets and their reintroduction in the diet. Millets and other underutilised crops are more tolerant to drought and heat and are also nutritious.

 Another area which will require anticipatory attention is the preparation for more

frequent floods and hailstorms.

 The mangrove forests along the 7500kms of shoreline should be conserved and their

area be increased. Mangroves serve as bio-shields.

 Nearly 97 per cent of the global water resource is sea water. There is scope now for

bio-saline farming involving both halophytes (salt tolerant plants) and marine aquaculture.

 The government of Kerala has decided to establish an International Research and training Centre in Below Sea Level Farming in Kuttanad for the purpose of equipping coastal communities in the science and art of bio-saline and below sea level agriculture. Such a Centre will also be of interest to areas like Sunderbans and countries like Maldives.

 The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has ceclared the Kuttanad Farming

System as a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS).

 The M S Swaminathan Research Foundation has established in Vedaranyam in TamilNadu, a Genetic Garden of Halophytes in order to conserve halophytes and make them available to breeders for designing climate smart coastal agricultural methods.

 All the programmes relating to climate change adaptation and mitigation must be

gender sensitive by making participation of women.

2.Mitigation Strategies

 Reducing deforestation and promoting Afforestation in a people centred manner will help to reduce the CO2 burden in the atmosphere.

 Methane, which is another GHG, can be used to promote biogas plants. This will help to both prevent methane accumulation in the atmosphere and at the same time, provide fuel and fertilizer to the farmer.

 Nitrous oxide emissions as a result of fertilizer application can be reduced through the use of neem coated urea.

 In fact, at the local level, the most effective method of contributing to the low carbon development pathway is the principle - “a biogas plant, few fertilizer trees and a farm pond in  every farm.”

Information technology can be used to provide information to small scale fishermen

data on wave heights from different distances from the shoreline as well as information on where the fish are.

Climate Change and Sustainable Development

Q. What is Sustainable Development?

A).The World Commission on Environment and Development aka Brundt land Commission defined Sustainable Development as “a process that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising over the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” It was formally accepted in the UN Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio in 1992, popularly known as the Earth Summit.

The two major international initiatives of this decade targeting biodiversity management as a means of meeting the challenges posed by global climate change and a poor state of human well-being in developing countries are:

a. International Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES)

b. UN-Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in developing

countries (UN-REDD)

Importance of Himalayas and the need for its protection

1. Himalayan mountain region is one of the 34 global biodiversity hotspots

2. It is part of one of the eight centres of crop diversity and thus harbours biological resources with potential benefits to the global community

3. It stores the highest ice mass next to polar regions, feeding the mighty rivers like Indus, Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Mekong, supporting the livelihoods of millions of poor people.

4. It is covered by partly/fully eight developing countries (viz., Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, China, Bhutan and Myanmar) where climate change mitigation/adaption and biodiversity conservation need to be coupled with socioeconomic development of local people for ensuring sustainable flow of global benefits from it, i.e. harmonization of the priorities for socio-economic development stressed by the local people and environmental conservation by the developed

world.

Responding to the global importance of Himalayas, India has drawn a National Mission on “Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem” as part of the National Action Plan on Climate Change.

all the best friends.